Related topics

Stock-trading teen hacker jailed again over 2nd scam

Back inside for $100k swindle attempt

Common Topics

A hacker jailed at 19 for a stock-trading scam has been jailed for three years over a new fraud, this time involving attempts to swindle a currency exchange out of $100,000.

Van T Dinh became infamous in 2003, aged just 19, when he hacked into the account of another trader in order to offload worthless stock derivatives he had acquired as a junior stock trader. The ruse involved tricking his victim into running Trojan horse malware disguised as a stock charting utility.

The scam was uncovered leading to computer hacking and identity theft charges against Dinh in the first case of its kind prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was convicted and jailed for 13 months a year later.

Dinh failed to find a regular job after his return to society, according to probation reports cited by Wired. By December 2008 he was up to his old tricks.

After setting up an account with an unnamed currency exchange he hacked into an administrator account to deposit two gifts of $55,000. He obtained unauthorised access to a further two accounts, gifting on $140,000, according to an FBI affidavit on the case obtained by Wired.

The unauthorised access was detected and traced back to an internet connection at the home Dinh shares with his mother in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Dinh was arrested and held on remand until his sentencing hearing this week when he was jailed for three years and ordered to pay $125,000 in compensation. ®